Students staged a protest at the leading Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband demanding removal of the new vice chancellor for his alleged comments on Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, seminary sources said.

A group of protesters, who were raising slogans against VC Maulana Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi, disrupted classes and closed the main gate last evening, they said, adding two students were injured in the melee.

The protesters dispersed after senior officials of the seminary tried to pacify them, the sources said.

However, deputy vice chancellor Maulana Abdul Khallik Madrasi claimed that some outside students were involved in the protest and that classes in the seminary have resumed today.

Meanwhile, Vastanvi dismissed reports of confrontation with the students and alleged that it was a conspiracy to malign the institute's image.

Vastanvi, who had recently praised development works in Gujarat, had earlier clarified that he had not not given a clean chit to Modi in the 2002 riots.

"Those who were involved in Gujarat riots should be punished," the cleric told reporters on Saturday at the seminary after taking charge as vice chancellor and added that he has never praised the BJP leader.

"How can something like this be said about a cruel man like him. I have not given a clean chit to him (Modi)...," Vastanvi, who hails from Gujarat, said.

The vice chancellor said he raised the point of the state's development because it involves the people of every community in Gujarat and both central and state governments were responsible for the uplift of the state.